6.  The applicant, who was born in 1984, is a Sunni Muslim from Baghdad.
7.  The applicant arrived in Sweden on 4 September 2008. In support of his application for asylum, he stated in essence the following. He risked persecution in Iraq because he had worked as a professional soldier during the regime of Saddam Hussein and because he was involved in a blood feud after he had accidentally shot and killed a relative. He claimed to have served as a private in Fedayeen, a paramilitary group loyal to Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist government, from January 2002 to March 2003. He had at the same time held a medium-level position in the Ba’ath party. Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, former members of Fedayeen had tried to recruit him to a new militia. When he had refused to join, he had been called a traitor and had received threatening letters. From January 2004 he had also been sought after frequently by the Iraqi authorities, the American troops and the Badr militia on account of his former membership in Fedayeen. He had left the family home to escape capture and had lived in different places in Baghdad, until August 2004 with an aunt and then until November 2005 with an uncle. Many members of Fedayeen had been killed after the regime change. When an acquaintance of his brother’s had been killed, the applicant had realised that he also risked the same fate. Then a cousin had been killed in the applicant’s family’s home after the applicant had received a threatening letter containing a bullet. The applicant had therefore left Baghdad in November 2005 and had fled to Mandali in the Diyala governorate to live with another uncle. In February 2006 American troops and the Badr militia had raided the uncle’s home, asking for the applicant. In Mandali he got into a fight with a distant relative in November 2006 and accidentally shot him when a warning shot had ricocheted. The man had later died from his injuries, and the dead man’s family had sworn to kill the applicant in revenge. The applicant had immediately left for Syria together with his younger brother. In January 2008, they had been joined there by his wife, whom he had married in Mandali in May 2006. Soon thereafter she, as well as the brother, had returned to Iraq and he no longer had any contact with her. He knew, however, that she was pregnant. The applicant had remained in Syria until he travelled to Sweden. In addition to the wife and younger brother, who had returned from Syria, his mother, another brother and a sister were also living in Iraq. The applicant had heard that his mother and sister were moving around in the country. He did not know the whereabouts of the two brothers, nor did he know anything about his father, who had left the family following his parents’ divorce in 1991 and who had held a high position in the Ba’ath party at least until that year.
8.  On 18 June 2009 the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) rejected the application for asylum and ordered the applicant’s deportation to Iraq. The Board did not question that the applicant had been a member of Fedayeen and the Ba’ath party. However, it had regard to country information, which indicated that former party members were no longer persecuted but were offered to get their old jobs back. The Board noted that, except for the alleged threatening letters, which had not been submitted to the Board, the applicant had lived for many years in Baghdad and Mandali without anything having happened to him. It also noted that the situation in Iraq had improved since the applicant had left the country. In regard to his claim that he was sought after by the Iraqi authorities and the American troops, the Board stated that the competent authorities were free to investigate whether he had committed any crimes during his time in Fedayeen or whether he held important information. Finally, the Board, noting that it had not been shown that the applicant had reported to Iraqi authorities that he had received threats on account of the alleged blood feud, considered that this was a local conflict with relatives in Mandali and held therefore that he should be able to return safely to, for instance, Baghdad.
9.  The applicant appealed to the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) which held an oral hearing in the case on 18 May 2010. At the hearing the applicant made, inter alia, the following additional submissions. Fedayeen had fought against the American invasion of Iraq and many Americans had died during the fighting. Fedayeen was therefore generally hated by the Americans but also by the Iraqi population who saw it as an oppressor organisation. He had served as bodyguard for a colonel and had in that capacity accompanied him at visits to Saddam Hussein. After the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, the applicant and his colleagues had been attacked in their homes by American troops and the Badr militia. He could not seek protection from the Iraqi authorities, as he was wanted by the present government due to his former membership of Fedayeen and the Ba’ath party. Furthermore, an uncle of the applicant’s, who lived in Sweden, had made a visit to Iraq in November 2009 and had then been brutally assaulted by relatives of the man that the applicant had accidentally killed. These relatives had even threatened to kill the applicant’s son, who was with the applicant’s wife in Syria. The applicant had heard that he was wanted by the Iraqi police in relation to the relative’s death. He could not move to another part of Iraq, because the authorities there would soon find out about his background and arrest him. Moreover, as a Sunni Arab, there was no possibility for him to move to the Kurdistan Region.
10.  On 3 June 2010 the Migration Court upheld the decision of the Board, generally agreeing with its conclusions. The court considered the applicant’s story to be coherent and detailed and did not find any reason to question it. As regards the threats emanating from Iraqi authorities, the American troops and the Badr militia, the court took into account that he had not held a prominent position in either the Ba’ath party or Fedayeen and that a long time had passed since his departure from Iraq. Referring to country information, according to which former Ba’ath party members were no longer persecuted or systematically attacked, the court concluded that it was not plausible that there was a remaining personal threat against the applicant on account of his previous political activities or work. Similarly, it noted that the threatening letter from the group established by former Fedayeen members had been received more than four years earlier and that there was no indication that this group had a remaining interest in him. With respect to the blood feud, the court noted that the relatives of the killed man had threatened to kill the applicant and his son, had approached the applicant’s family and written a threatening message on the wall of the family’s previous home and had assaulted his uncle. According to the court, this indicated that the applicant risked treatment upon return of a kind that placed him in the category of “an alien otherwise in need of protection” under Chapter 4, section 2 of the Swedish Aliens Act (see further below, at § 13). As the shooting had occurred in the Diyala governorate, where the relatives of the killed man lived, and the subsequent events had taken place in Baghdad, the court found that the applicant was at risk in both the Diyala governorate and Baghdad. Nevertheless, in assessing whether there was an internal relocation alternative for him, the court had regard to country information and found that he would be able to safely relocate to the Sunni-dominated Anbar governorate where many internally displaced Sunni Arabs had settled. It noted that the applicant had not made it plausible that the threat posed by the relatives extended to that province or that he was at risk there for any other reason. It also took into account that the applicant was a young and healthy man who was fit to work.
11.  On 6 July 2010 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused the applicant leave to appeal.